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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSpiritual Guidance: Reacting to the Circle of Nerfing
by Matt Low 
Dec 14th 2008 at 8:00PM
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Today Matticus will examine the Circle of Healing nerf.
In case you've missed the news, it's been announced that Circle of Healing would be getting a 6 second cooldown. I had a feeling the nerf would be happening and I can't say I'm surprised. It does make me cry a little bit on the inside. Is it justified? How can we adapt? Read on!Is this going to be a class breaking change? No it won't be. The Holy Priest will adapt because the fundamentals of our healing are sound. A trick I like to use a lot is that I'll try to set up a Surge of Light proc by hitting CoH a few times for the instant single target heal. If I'm lucky, I'll get a quick proc with one CoH tap.
Let me share with you a few WWS snapshots of myself in action (and yes you may proceed to laugh and criticize how awful of a healer I am). Let's analyze an example of a Holy Priest during various boss fights.
Malygos 25
This is the overall report for heroic Malygos on the night we killed him for the first time (10 attempts). As you can see, my use of Circle of Healing is extremely liberal. My thoughts on progression nights are to use whatever spell I have at my disposal to kill a boss. I don't want to try to pigeon hole myself in a corner where I have to use a certain set of spells to optimize my mana efficiency. Those rules go out the window for me on progression because I have to do what I can in order to get the job done. Circle of Healing is used often for me during the vortex phase of Malygos because of the nature of that phase. I have to rely on instant casts to heal the raid.
Loatheb 25
Here is one of reports for Loatheb. Unfortunately this doesn't show the number of Power Word: Shields I was throwing up when Necrotic Aura was active. When the aura is up, it reduces healing done to 0% rendering your spells completely ineffective. Shields will still prevent damage. The Flash Heals were from Surge of Light crits that I decided to use when it looked like the raid was topped off and I had time to squeeze another heal off.
But as you can see, this another fight where Circle of Healing has helped tremendously.
Let's look at other fights now where Circle of Healing isn't as needed as much.
Then again, you don't really need to have 25 players for Loatheb.
Kel'Thuzad 25
Healing on Kel'Thuzad becomes a bit more balanced. I'm not stuck having to repeatedly slam my IWIN button because I have access to it. And yet, Circle of Healing still comes out on top. While Kel'Thuzad isn't exactly your typical boss fight, there is a lot of stress placed on healers due to the random events that happen. When my raiders start getting that chain frost nova (Frost Blast), healers have a few seconds to react as it does a little over 100% damage over a small period of time (104% over 4 seconds, I think it was). In that particular instance, I find myself hitting Circle of Healing just to get them out of the danger zone.
Sartharion 25
Sartharion is the boss in Obsidian Sanctum. Heh, here's one I'm not particularly proud of. I was assigned to raid healing and I had an exam the next day. I might've been listening to a lecture recording and healing at the same time (and a huge emphasis on might, I might add). A lot of raid healing is done (as you can tell) and a lot of Prayer of Mending being thrown out there.
By the way, Priests make sure you tell your loot master how important it is to at least get the 2 set bonus for tier 7. Beg them if you have to. You're going to really want it.
How will this affect me?
The 6 second cooldown is going to hurt a little, there is no doubt about that. My use of Circle of Healing will go down a lot and I'm going to have to get a lot more creative about how to tackle certain phases and certain bosses (scroll down for more). The usage on trash mobs in raid instances will also drop as well. I may have to start paying even more attention instead of simple face rolling across my keyboard.
Is the nerf justified?
Apparently it is and I'm as guilty as other Holy Priests out there for using it extensively. I should be using other spells in addition to it and I am (or at least, making an effort to). I'll certainly come back in a few weeks with another look at these bosses and my reports to see how much things have really changed.
Is my raid spot going to go to another healer?
Hah, fat chance of that happening. Bring the player not the class, remember? Move if there's a rain of fire on you. Don't stand in cleave range. Do the Heigan dance without dying. Successfully beat the ledge boss (when facing Thaddius).
Besides, every Alliance guild needs a token Dwarf.
Affected fights
Assuming the patch changes were to be made live soon, I'm going to have to change the way I approach certain encounters. Don't forget that Priests still have two AoE spells at their disposal in addition to Circle of Healing: Prayer of Healing and Holy Nova.
Malygos 25: Vortex phase
Prayer of Healing is largely useless in this phase. Keep an eye on the timers. Keep a Shield and a Renew on yourself going into it and light up a Prayer of Mending on weakened players. Tap Circle of Healing once or twice when it's available (remember it's a 6s cooldown, it's not being removed from the game). Save Surge of Light procs as long as possible for really vulnerable or near-death players. You can also Holy Nova in the air to try to catch a few members in your group if necessary.
Loatheb 25
If you're not using the cooldown on your Power Word: Shield during Necrotic Auras, start working them. As the Necrotic Aura starts counting down, set up pre-emptive Renews and even a Prayer of Mending. When you see the Necrotic Aura debuff timer at 2 seconds remaining, cast a Prayer of Healing to get your group. Target a weak player and hit Circle of Healing. If your group is still need of heals, rely on your Holy Nova to top them the rest of the way.
Kel'Thuzad 25
The big issue for me in this encounter are those pesky ice blocks (Frost Blast) and healing the guys that caught in them. Ideally, only one player will get caught. But there will be cases where it will chain having 2 or even 3 players stuck in them. Circle of Healing taps will get them out of it. Assuming I have 3 players caught, I'll wait for one tick of frost to go off and activate Circle of Healing. On the same target I still have selected, I'll cast Prayer of Mending. Switching to a different target, I'll cast Power Word: Shield (and the Glyph should also activate providing additional health). If I'm really lucky, I can squeeze off a Flash Heal on the last guy. Best case scenario is to have multiple healers aware of the Frost Blasts and cover for it as needed.
Sartharion 25
For me personally, my goal is to not be lazy and use a wider variety of spells instead of just Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending. However, I will be attempting a 1 (or even a 2) drake up fairly soon and I may end up having to stand on my head depending on how the encounter goes.
So Priests, yes it's going to suck for a while. It's not a class breaking or a game breaking nerf. I hope no one's going to quit the game over it. Work hard, don't suck and play your best. Get creative and do what you can.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries!Filed under: Dwarves, Priest, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Raiding, Bosses, Classes, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
pyoko Dec 14th 2008 9:21PM
OK heres the the real deal on CoH. Prior to 3.0 CoH was an awesome spell for good priests, and one that a lot of bad priests didnt spec into becasue they didnt understand the power of the spell when used correctly. For that reason (ofcourse there are also good dicipline priests) many priests chose divine spirit because that was a very popular raid spec simply becasue of the buff they gave. CoH was misunderstood by the tarded masses, and not very popular, therefor blizz made it a "smart heal" on 3.o. This is the root cause of the OP-ness of current CoH. Blizzes own improvement. Why? because wheresas before a CoH priest had to wisely use their GCDs on the correct party that needed the most healing while also spot healing more hurt players, NOW we only have to target some random shmoe or even ourselves and every heal will automatically go the closest HURT players. You see, this doubles or even triples the efficiency of the spell, negating a TON of overhealing and eliminating the need to choose diffent targets constanty. In other words, ITS MAD OP. Add on the new surge of light talent which affects flash heal now in addition to smite, and with a measly 10 percent crit and the base holy talent for 5 extra crit and u can proc flash of light with COH like every time it is available. I'd appreciate your positive attitude about the nerf if it wasnt a problem of blizzards own stupid making. As for the "smart heal" mechanics, where is my smart prayer of healing? Or will u make that one smart and then give it 10 second CD a month later..? Thank you blizz for buffing my favorite spell and then destroying it. I feel liek a frikkin pally. 41 point talent? Blizz pleaze, you must have a mental disease, assume the position and get back down on yur knees.
-Pyo
Janaa Dec 14th 2008 10:55PM
Over-reaction much? :) I understand it definitely IS a nerf reducing it to a 6-second cooldown, but in relation to "I feel liek a frikkin pally. " - I *am* a pally. We have *no* group heal. We have *no* spammable instant heal (only Holy Shock on a cooldown, but its very rarely used as it's so mana-hungry). We have *no* HoT (except glyph'd flash of light, which still isn't an instant, so fairly useless - especially when priests/druids/shamans are all stomping all over it with their group heals).
There's a number of people in this thread saying "we need CoH on demand!" or "there are fights that are virtually impossible without spamming CoH". Try doing those fights with ONLY lesser and greater heal. Welcome to pally.
hedyd Dec 15th 2008 11:24AM
yea, but try healing in your nightgown!
Janaa Dec 15th 2008 6:54PM
THAT was modded up? Healing pallys in raids only take magic damage, which ignores our armour. We're in exactly the same boat as you, but without the heals. NEXT!
Marty McFly Dec 16th 2008 8:06AM
I for one haven't played a priest....
shut up then. That spell is not the reason we run oom. It's from dps thinking they can tank, its from tanks in greens, its from people standing places they shouldn't. one spell is not responsible for us going oom and if you haven't played a priest than why are you commenting on one?
Janaa Dec 16th 2008 4:26PM
I said I haven't played a priest, not I haven't played a healer. One of my mains is a holy pally, and pre-Illumination we had much much worse mana problems than you do. Thankfully they've fixed that a bit with Illumination and Divine Plea.
However scrub, I don't accept for a second the "it's everyone else's fault" for priests OOMing 2 minutes into a raid boss fight. If it's happening to you (seems to be the case since you're on the devensive) either a) you heal badly, b) every other healer in your raid heals badly, or c) your raid leader/heal assigner doesn't know how to do his job.
Merry Xmas!
Janaa Dec 16th 2008 4:34PM
Besides Marty, you seem to be taking offense for all the wrong reasons. I'm not criticising priests in general. I'm not saying they're bad healers. I'm saying there *are* bad priests who *are* OOMing from using CoH to the exclusion of everything else, and therefore I welcome this change (as in my original post) because it'll give them an opportunity to learn to use other healing spells.
I've got one of these priests in my guild. She's absolutely terrible. She can't heal through heroic TRASH MOBS. Anything that teaches her to heal better is a good thing in my book.
Edward Jan 17th 2009 11:38PM
It's interesting, I''ve always been a 20/41 priest in BC, and now 21/40 in LK. I'm the most powerful healer in my guild by far, and over 75% of my healing on every fight comes from PoM and G heal, CoH is a situational spell, it's not very strong, if you had 10 priests spamming CoH on the main tank for patchwerk, your tank would die.
I can recall a lot of times where I've seen priests spamming CoH and nothing else though, even for the tiniest bit of damage done by trash, instead of putting on a renew and laying back to enjoy the mana returns from not casting.
All in all, I'm very happy this nerf is comming, I'm a holy priest, and I top the meters and I NEVER get an innervate. It's always the other one or two priests, that low on the meter spamming CoH.
What's funnier is that they don't even look to see if there are Druid HoT's on players taking minimal damage, they just spam CoH to steal their heals. I comment on vent a lot about it, they just don't care.
Here's my healing cycle for 90% of the boss fights.
PoM, G heal, renew, inner focus + gheal, PoM. At level 80 and with 16k mana, you're over 98% mana with that rotation already. Not bad, two PoMs, two G heals, and a renew at 2010 spellpower, that's over (2)(6 PoM jumps tier bonus)(3k) + (5)(2.1k on renew, no renew glyph) + 9k(2) on g heals. So how much healing with only 2% of my mana, 36k+ 10k +18k, 64k healing overall? wow and with ~20% crit chance (moonkin buff) close, 80-90k healing with 2% of my mana right at the start of fight.
That's certainly beats spamming CoH anyday and it always has.
I'm so happy you f*c*tard priests are taking this nerf, maybe I won't even have to roll of priest gear against you anymore, because you'll get g kicked.
Thank You for your time!
lsschwartz Dec 14th 2008 8:57PM
I have a holy priest at lvl 73 and I must say I don't use CoH that much. I use it as my oops button actually, and mostly do renews and flash heals as my main healing spells and prayer of mending before pulls. With the glyph of flash heal I find that they're so fast to cast that usually with renew on dpsers I have time to keep them waiting a bit for a flash heal.
Some fights do require it though and I'll miss not being able to spam it as much.
Bith Dec 14th 2008 9:10PM
It's defnitely survivable without Circle of Healing. I do it without it. CoH is often the lowest on my WWS parses so this nerf didn't hit me that bad. There are plenty of other heals to use and to be honest, Circle of Healing seemed to have become a crutch for many unskilled priests. I've met priests that CoH spam come out with healing like the skilled priests and I'm glad this will remove that. It's time to actually see healer skills now.
zappo Dec 15th 2008 10:12AM
I was having a discussion about this the other night with someone and we also agreed that healers with some form of skill would come to the front with this change where formerly it was just a button spam of the same spell.
Unfortunately there is one issue: there is already a fair healer shortage and at this point you really can't be all that picky. I have the feeling that more than a few priests will be exposed with this change as having absolutely no aptitude for healing what-so-ever. I could see this as just completely throwing a wrench in progression for those who are dependent on a priest or two who become essentially ineffective with this patch because they can't adapt to the play style.
Hevnlyst Dec 14th 2008 9:18PM
As someone who was holy, and switched to disc before the nerf was even a thought, I'm not very sad or suprised. Prayer of Healing is still an extremely effective aoe heal, but it is party only.
My guess is that much more people will go disc now, for it brings grace and imp. ds, , and you still have prayer of healing, which can be glyphed to be just as potent. As for instant casts..... Glyphed Holy Nova, just people will have to get closer.
aranwe Dec 14th 2008 9:41PM
Thanks a lot to the circle of healing spammers for this is all I can say. If you want to learn how to heal without it, go roll a disc/holy priest without CoH, you'll actually learn how to heal without being lazy. All I'm left wondering now is what's the point of CoH, unless they're buffing its actual healing amount it's pretty weak, at 2k spellpower it'll heal each person for 1900 base, then any crits... when we're sitting here with 19k health on clothies why bother using it? I would only ever use it to spam it 3 times to get the raid back up to health, and then proceed without it as usual.
Eirwen Dec 27th 2008 4:22AM
This whole nerf is just something that resto shammys came up with so they could be the "raid healers" again. And Janaa, how can you judge priests when you never even played the class? I'm just saying if they ARE going to make it have a cd, then they need to do one of two things. They need to make the CD to 3 seconds so they can use it as much as the resto shammys use their chain heal, or make each heal on the CoH heal for more. Who's with me?
pyoko Dec 14th 2008 10:06PM
Props to Aranwe for pointing out the obvious: That CoH will soon become a useless pile of doo doo talent smack dab near the top of the holy tree.. ANd as for the author's assertion that he would use COH for quick Surge of Light procs: Why would i ever use the nerfed CoH to mebbe proc a free flash heal that cannot crit? Really? No. Prayer of mending's crits will passively proc your surge of light while you spam Flash Heals liek a dirty pally and watch as shamans bask in the glory of being the only viable Raid damage healers. HAve fun!
SheldonLock Dec 14th 2008 10:09PM
If Blizzard really wants us to experience the Content, then how the fuck is Nerfing a good ability helping? I really see this as a Useless Nerf, and it gives me all the more reason to Re-Spec out of Circle of Healing. Or, unless they have it do a LOT more healing then it actually does, then I'd be compelled to keep it. But unless that happens, then there are more useful things I could be spending that one extra Talent Point on.
sharkeater75 Dec 14th 2008 10:27PM
I don't much heal with it, and my style apparently differs greatly from mr matticus's. I just use flash in an emergency or when surge procs, or somoene needs a quick bump up.
generally its greaters, poms and renews.
the problem is that there are fights that COH is pretty much a must. or if you have a melee heavy raid, its going to be definatly missed.
I'm seeing it more as a bandaid in fights like KT and Maylgos to prop up the raid, and give a shammy time to get off a chain heal.
for all of blizzes heein and hawwin about how they want no one class to be blah blah.... they just certainly made sure that a shammy in a serious raid is a must.
Mindaika Dec 14th 2008 11:12PM
"For me personally, my goal is to not be lazy and use a wider variety of spells instead of just Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending."
That takes you out of the Circle of what they're trying to change. The priests in our 25-mans do 80-90% of their healing from CoH. Blizz is trying to get away from the one-button spam, which is the purpose of this change, the hunter nerfs (to some degree) and the warlock changes.
vanye111 Dec 15th 2008 10:05AM
I just wish they would do something to make frost a little more varied (aside from the instacast, less damage than throwing another frostbolt, fireball).
Kisheria Dec 14th 2008 11:31PM
Well, if I ever go back to healing with Holy, I guess I can get an extra point by skipping CoH. >.>;;;